Katie Hopkins loses legal battle after being taken to court by Jack Monroe

Katie Hopkins’ legal bills currently stand in excess of £300,000 after she lost a legal battle to food blogger Jack Monroe.

The poverty campaigner and blogger Jack Monroe took Hopkins to court for defamatory comments made against her on Twitter in May 2015.

Hopkins implied that Monroe had vandalised war memorials during protests following the 2015 general election. In a case of mistaken identity, it appeared to be a targeted attack when Hopkins tweeted Monroe directly:

“Scrawled on any memorials recently? Vandalised the memory of those who fought for your freedom. Grandma got any more medals?”

In fact, Hopkins had meant to direct the abusive comments to Laurie Penny. The New Statesman columnist had previously said she didn’t “have a problem” with graffiti reading “F*** Tory scum” defacing a memorial to women of the Second World War.

At the time of the incident, despite the vile comments made against Monroe in the Twitter attack, Monroe offered Hopkins the option to settle things out of court. Requesting a simple apology and a £5,000 donation to charities to help migrants:

“Dear @KTHopkins, public apology + £5k to migrant rescue and I won’t sue. It’ll be cheaper for you and v satisfying for me.”

In his judicial judgement, Mr Justice Warby commented: “The case could easily have been resolved at an early stage. There was an open offer to settle for £5,000. It was a reasonable offer.”

However, Hopkins refused the offer. Monroe subsequently took her to court. Now, Katie Hopkins is to pay £24,000 in compensation to Monroe. But Monroe’s lawyers confirmed to The Independent that Hopkins will also fork out a hefty £300,000 to cover the legal costs.

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